Quantifying the Origin of Woodcock Wintering in France

Abstract: Migratory birds wintering at the same location are usually coming from populations of different origins, in variable proportions. Using data from individuals banded on their wintering grounds and recovered on their breeding areas, we show that such proportions are estimable given that 1) all breeding populations are identified, and 2) the wintering population can be stratified into ≥1 more site than the number of breeding populations. We applied this technique to woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) banded while wintering in France (N = 35,000) and recovered in other European countries (N = 520). We estimated that the proportion of eastern woodcock among those wintering in France varied spatially, ranging from 70% in northwest France to nearly 100% in southeast France, and increased substantially over the last 15 years. Overall, the method appears powerful to quantify spatial variation of the composition of a population receiving individuals from various origins.     

Postpartum Haemorrhage in Canada and France: A Population-Based Comparison

Objective

Maternal mortality ratio due to postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is higher in France than in Canada. We explored this difference by comparing PPH features between these two countries.

Methods

Using data between 2004 and 2006, we compared the incidence, risk factors, causes and use of second-line treatments, of PPH between France (N = 6,660 PPH) and Canada (N = 9,838 PPH). We assessed factors associated with PPH through multivariate logistic models.

Results

PPH incidence, overall (4.8% (95% CI 4.7–4.9) in Canada and 4.5% (95% CI 4.4–4.7) in France), and after vaginal delivery (5.3% (95%CI 5.2–5.4) in Canada and 4.8 (95%CI 4.7–4.9) in France), were significantly higher in Canada than in France, but not after caesarean delivery. Women delivering without PPH were similar between the two populations, except for macrosomia (11% in Canada, 7% in France, p<0.001), caesarean delivery (27% in Canada, 18% in France, p<0.001), and episiotomy (17% in Canada, 34% in France, p<0.001). After vaginal delivery, factors strongly associated with PPH were multiple pregnancy, operative delivery and macrosomia in both populations, and episiotomy only in France (Odds Ratio 1.39 (95% CI 1.23–1.57)). The use of second-line treatments for PPH management was significantly more frequent in France than in Canada after both vaginal and caesarean delivery.

Conclusion

PPH incidence was not higher in France than in Canada and there was no substantial difference in PPH risk factors between the 2 countries. Greater use of second-line treatments in PPH management in France suggests a more frequent failure of first-line treatments and a higher rate of severe PPH, which may be involved in the higher maternal mortality ratio due to PPH.     

Biodiversity eavesdropping: bioacoustics confirms the presence of Cicadetta montana (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadidae) in France

Using bioacoustic methods only, we confirm the presence of Cicadetta montana s. str. in France, a cicada belonging to a complex of closely related species. Specimens of C. montana from France have probably been kept in collections for a long time but could not be identified with certainty by morphological characters alone. The species was discovered in a single locality but it is highly probable that it will be found in many other parts of the country in particular in the north and east of France. This simple study illustrates how much bioacoustic studies can help in monotoring biodiversity, in particular biodiversity of closely related species and/or of species living in habitats difficult to reach or where visual contact is highly limited.     

Ivory Ornaments of the Aurignacian in Western Europe: Case studies from France and Germany

Here we present an overview of the personal ornaments of the Swabian Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian sites of south-western France made from mammoth ivory. The production sequences for the serial manufacture of beads from these sites are quite similar. While the Swabian sites have yielded numerous different types of beads with a focus of the double-perforated bead, the nearly exclusive use of one bead-type, the perle en forme de panier, is striking at the sites of south-western France. Following the presentation of major inventories of ivory ornaments in the two regions concerned, we discuss potential factors underlying both the differences and the similarities we observe in these assemblages.     

The virulence of human pathogenic fungi: notes from the South of France

The Second FEBS Advanced Lecture Course on Human Fungal Pathogens: Molecular Mechanisms of Host-Pathogen Interactions and Virulence, organized by Christophe d'Enfert (Institut Pasteur, France), Anita Sil (UCSF, USA), and Steffen Rupp (Fraunhofer, IGB, Germany), occurred May 2007 in La Colle sur Loup, France. Here we review the advances presented and the current state of knowledge in key areas of fungal pathogenesis.     

Identifying autumn migration routes for the globally threatened Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola

The migration strategy of the globally threatened Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola needs to be known to ensure that effective action is taken to conserve its principal stopover sites. Using data from ringing stations during the autumn migration of reedbed warblers, we developed an index that allowed countries and sites to be compared in terms of their numerical importance to migrating Aquatic Warblers. According to this index, there was no significant decline in the number of Aquatic Warblers migrating through Europe during the 1990s. France appears to receive the largest numbers of this species in autumn compared with other European countries. Within France, only coastal regions are visited by the species (but not in the Mediterranean), with the largest numbers occurring in Normandy and Loire, while Brittany receives large numbers in some years but not in others. We also identified some French sites that are of major importance to migrating Aquatic Warblers depositing reserves on migration. France therefore plays a very important part in providing stopover sites for Aquatic Warblers, which means that France should play a major role in undertaking conservation measures for this threatened species.     

Commuter Mobility and the Spread of Infectious Diseases: Application to Influenza in France

Commuting data is increasingly used to describe population mobility in epidemic models. However, there is little evidence that the spatial spread of observed epidemics agrees with commuting. Here, using data from 25 epidemics for influenza-like illness in France (ILI) as seen by the Sentinelles network, we show that commuting volume is highly correlated with the spread of ILI. Next, we provide a systematic analysis of the spread of epidemics using commuting data in a mathematical model. We extract typical paths in the initial spread, related to the organization of the commuting network. These findings suggest that an alternative geographic distribution of GP accross France to the current one could be proposed. Finally, we show that change in commuting according to age (school or work commuting) impacts epidemic spread, and should be taken into account in realistic models.     

New data on Late Pleistocene small vertebrates from northern France

Quaternary small vertebrate assemblages from northern France, and more generally from northwestern Europe, are poorly recognized, and studied less than those from more southern, Mediterranean areas. However, important sites of human occupation are often found in these northern areas, with significant issues related to the occupation of these sites by Neanderthals and previous humans, as well as faunal dynamics under climatic pressure. In this paper, we present preliminary results from the study of small vertebrate assemblages from two Late Pleistocene sites of northern France: Mutzig (Alsace) and Le Rozel (Normandy). Both are ancient rock-shelters that have been excavated recently and have yielded evidence of Neanderthal occupation, but in very different contexts: Le Rozel is located in a coastal area of northwestern France contemporaneous with a temperate period, while Mutzig is located at the foot of the Vosges mountains in northeastern France and was occupied during a cold period. Consequently, even if these two sites are chronologically close to each other, differences in faunal composition are observed and discussed in relation to the geographic, climatic and biochronological context, in comparing the results from small vertebrates with those from other disciplines (numerical dating, large mammals).     

Infectivity of resting spores of Massospora cicadina (Entomophthorales: Entomophthoraceae), an entomopathogenic fungus of periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.) (Homoptera: Cicadidae)

Progeny of eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, introduced into France in 1992, were reared in IFREMER facilities to test their growth performances. During the summer of 1993, sporadic mass mortalities (80-90%) occurred among C. virginica spat reared in the IFREMER laboratories in La Tremblade (Charente Maritime, France) and Bouin (Vendée, France). Affected oysters presented mantle retraction and deposition of an anomalous conchiolin layer on the inner surface of the shell. The incidence of oysters with gross signs exceeded 80%. No obvious pathogen was identified in soft tissues by histology and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). However, histological examination showed the presence of anomalous basophilic round structures, 0.5-1 microm in diameter, in gill and mantle connective tissues. These extracellular Feulgen-negative structures reacted positively with the von Kossa stain. TEM examination on mantle and gill samples in diseased spat showed that the basophilic bodies consisted of concentric deposits of an amorphous substance interpreted as containing calcium. These observations may indicate that the mineralization process in spat shells was disturbed without exact determination of the cause. Based on the similarities of the gross signs to those reported in juvenile eastern oysters in the United States, we believe that the cause of the mortalities observed in France was probably the Juvenile Oyster Disease. Moreover, we report for the first time the detection of anomalous amorphous structures in gill and mantle connective tissues associated with mortalities and deposition of an anomalous conchioloin layer on the inner shell surface in C. virginica spat.     

Introduced ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of mainland France and Belgium,with a focus on greenhouses

The monitoring of introduced species is becoming more important as global trade intensifies. Although ants make up a larger proportion of species on the list of the most invasive species in the world compared with other groups, little is known about the occurrence of those introduced in France, especially inside heated buildings. Here we review the literature available for mainland France and Belgium and report the results of a survey conducted with the help of tropical building managers between 2014 and 2016. We report for the first time in France the presence of Technomyrmex vitiensis and Plagiolepis alluaudi in multiple greenhouses. Technomyrmex difficilis was also found in one greenhouse for the first time in Europe. The diversity of introduced ants in greenhouses is very low, and these buildings are most often dominated by one or two species. We compared the most recent data and those collected throughout the twentieth century and showed that ant communities have changed substantially. Greenhouses could be responsible for the introduction of invasive species because they regularly import exotic plants, but we found no evidence that the three species of invasive ants present outdoors in France were introduced from greenhouses, where they rarely occur. We also report that introduced ants are pests in greenhouses because they disperse scale insects and kill biological control agents. The suppression of these ants could ease the maintenance of plants inside greenhouses.     

Notice of Post-Publication Acknowledgement

##正## The research work in Ref.[1]received support from the Surgical Center Henri Mondor, University Paris 12,France.Therefore,we would like to publish the following acknowledgement:This work was within the framework of an Erasmus student mobility at the Higher Institute of Bio Science,University Paris 1 2,France,which enabled the international collaboration with Faculty of Medical Bioengineering,University ofIasi,Romania.The experimental measurements and partial processing ofthe data presented in this article     

Comparison of the structure and composition of bacterial communities from temperate and tropical freshwater ecosystems

We used a partial 16S rRNA sequencing approach to compare the structure and composition of the bacterial communities in three large, deep subalpine lakes in France with those of communities in six shallow tropical reservoirs in Burkina Faso. Despite the very different characteristics of these ecosystems, we found that their bacterial communities share the same composition in regard to the relative proportions of the different phyla, suggesting that freshwater environmental conditions lead to convergence in this composition. In the same way, we found no significant difference in the richness and diversity of the bacterial communities in France and Burkina Faso. We defined core and satellite operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (sequences sharing at least 98% identity) on the basis of their abundance and their geographical distribution. The core OTUs were found either ubiquitously or only in temperate or tropical and subtropical areas, and they contained more than 70% of all the sequences retrieved in this study. In contrast, satellite OTUs were characterized by having a more restricted geographical distribution and by lower abundance. Finally, the bacterial community composition of these freshwater ecosystems in France and Burkina Faso was markedly different, showing that the history of these ecosystems and regional environmental parameters have a greater impact on the relative abundances of the different OTUs in each bacterial community than the local environmental conditions.     

Global scale variation in the salinity sensitivity of riverine macroinvertebrates: eastern Australia, France, Israel and South Africa

Salinity is a key abiotic property of inland waters; it has a major influence on biotic communities and is affected by many natural and anthropogenic processes. Salinity of inland waters tends to increase with aridity, and biota of inland waters may have evolved greater salt tolerance in more arid regions. Here we compare the sensitivity of stream macroinvertebrate species to salinity from a relatively wet region in France (Lorraine and Brittany) to that in three relatively arid regions eastern Australia (Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania), South Africa (south-east of the Eastern Cape Province) and Israel using the identical experimental method in all locations. The species whose salinity tolerance was tested, were somewhat more salt tolerant in eastern Australia and South Africa than France, with those in Israel being intermediate. However, by far the greatest source of variation in species sensitivity was between taxonomic groups (Order and Class) and not between the regions. We used a bayesian statistical model to estimate the species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) for salinity in eastern Australia and France adjusting for the assemblages of species in these regions. The assemblage in France was slightly more salinity sensitive than that in eastern Australia. We therefore suggest that regional salinity sensitivity is therefore likely to depend most on the taxonomic composition of respective macroinvertebrate assemblages. On this basis it would be possible to screen rivers globally for risk from salinisation.     

Genetic Differentiation in Tetranychus Urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae): polymorphism,host races or sibling species?

Based on allozyme electrophoresis at the Pgm locus and nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS2) sequences, we studied the genetic variation of the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch collected on rose bay, Nerium oleander L. (Apocynaceae), from several localities around the Mediterranean basin. In addition, we compared these results with those of Navajas et al. (1998) and Tsagkarakou (1997) who collected from several other host plants from the Mediterranean. In the western part of this area (Spain, France, Tunisia), we found the individuals collected from rose bay to be clearly genetically differentiated from other samples. No evidence of such host-associated differentiation was detected in the eastern Mediterranean (Italy and Greece). The genetic differentiation of mites collected on rose bay was investigated further by studying the reproductive incompatibilities between populations in Greece and in France and a laboratory strain reared on bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, in France. Reciprocal crosses performed between these strains revealed variable levels of incompatibility, spanning from partial to complete reproductive isolation. In all cases incompatibility was asymmetric. We designed a test based on double-mating to establish the fertilization status of females in fully incompatible crosses. These crosses showed that the females had been inseminated, which suggests that the barrier to reproduction is not of a prezygotic behavioral nature. The data raises the question of the relative role of ecological factors (host plant) and geographical distance, in the ongoing differentiation process potentially leading to speciation.     

Early days in interferon research

I describe in this article the early days of interferon research in France. In 1957, when Isaacs and Lindenmann published their results in the same time we worked on a para-influenza 3 virus inhibitor. Thereafter we confirmed this important discovery and initiated research studies about anti-tumor action of interferon.     

A European Melting Pot of Harbour Porpoise in the French Atlantic Coasts Inferred from Mitochondrial and Nuclear Data

Field surveys have reported a global shift in harbour porpoise distribution in European waters during the last 15 years, including a return to the Atlantic coasts of France. In this study, we analyzed genetic polymorphisms at a fragment of the mitochondrial control region (mtDNA CR) and 7 nuclear microsatellite loci, for 52 animals stranded and by-caught between 2000 and 2010 along the Atlantic coasts of France. The analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial loci provided contrasting results. The mtDNA revealed two genetically distinct groups, one closely related to the Iberian and African harbour porpoises, and the second related to individuals from the more northern waters of Europe. In contrast, nuclear polymorphisms did not display such a distinction. Nuclear markers suggested that harbour porpoises behaved as a randomly mating population along the Atlantic coasts of France. The difference between the two kinds of markers can be explained by differences in their mode of inheritance, the mtDNA being maternally inherited in contrast to nuclear loci that are bi-parentally inherited. Our results provide evidence that a major proportion of the animals we sampled are admixed individuals from the two genetically distinct populations previously identified along the Iberian coasts and in the North East Atlantic. The French Atlantic coasts are clearly the place where these two previously separated populations of harbour porpoises are now admixing. The present shifts in distribution of harbour porpoises along this coast is likely caused by habitat changes that will need to be further studied.     

NEST ENVIRONMENTS OF THE LATE CRETACEOUS DINOS AUR EGGS FROM NANXIONG BASIN, GUANGDONG PROVINCE

<正>As dinosaurs were oviparous animals, incubation of their eggs was the essential procedure during their reproduction. Physiologically. eggshell microstructures were bound to adapt to the nest environments during incubation if embryos normally developed. Gas conductance estimated from eggshell morphology can provide evidence for the environment conditions in nests. Seymour (1979) first estimated gas coaductance of dinosaur eggs from France and Mongolia and indicated that the nest environments of these eggs were all high in humidity, low in oxygen and high in carbon dioxide. Such conditions most likely occurred underground or within incubation mounds. Williams et al. (1984) found similar nest environments of four kinds of dinosaur eggs from Aix Basin in southern France.     

Survey of the parasitoids of the European Sunflower MothHomoeosoma nebulella [Lep.: Pyralidae] in the palearctic region

The European Sunflower MothHomoeosoma nebulella Denis & Schiffermüller is a potential pest on sunflower in France. The parasitoids of this moth are little known. We present here original data obtained in the south of France together with previous survey. Some parasitoids we found were new records onH. nebulella. The relative weakness of the parasite complex ofH. nebulella (less than 15 species) compared to that of the American Sunflower MothH. electellum (Hulst) is discussed.     

Application of airborne imaging spectrometry system data to intertidal seaweed classification and mapping

Hydrobiologia - The aim of this paper is to test the ability of imaging radiometers to describe the principal seaweed and seagrass beds along the coast of Brittany (France). In this work we used...